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To any onlooker it was only a tree. A dirty thing, with saggy branches and wimpy leaves, and no light made it through the canopy. But, to Lux it was much more than just any old tree---much more than a Willow—it was a memory frozen in time. A series of memories, more of, all containing one, constant person. Someone whom she depended on, someone she loved, but now who was lost.
Lux still felt their ghost of a touch on her skin, and the sting of a kiss they left. She felt her heart pound a metronome whenever the townspeople whispered their name. Only, they whispered a curse. Jinx was her name, a curse, but to Lux she was nothing more than a lonely woman whom Lux loved dearly.
A clouded mind made way for a gray room, only no color was gray, it was encompassed by a graying mist that hid details in the corners of her mind. Despite the obstructions, Lux saw clearly the memory of the room. She felt clearly the licks of sunlight and soft breaths of her lover beside her. Lux knew of how she caressed her cheek and laid soft kisses anywhere she could reach. Lux remembered how Jinx awoke, startled, as she always did, and she recalled the terror that quickly morphed into utter joy and enthusiasm. It made her heart flutter, and it made her arms antsy to reach out and grab for more, but the bed was empty.
Hot, it had been hot for a long time. Lux never touched that side, she kept it clean and neat for when Jinx came back. But Jinx was as cold as the sheets she once laid on. Lux knew it, she knew Jinx was gone and that the only thing left was the tree they met under.
It was a cold, rainy night, the last she'd felt for a while. Lux had been about, umbrella in hand, running here and there getting things for her mortal body, when she heard sniffling under The Weeping Willow. Many tales were told of the Willow tree, the one that abducts and destroys, cowers and mistrusts. The tree was a curse to the peoples of the town, but that did little to stop approaching footsteps.
Wet ground sunk under her boots and squelches of muddy puddles filled her ears. The rain poured down thick, but it did little to hush the Weeping under the Willow. Lux pushed the long, moppy strands of green assigned, opening into a warm, dry shelter that held an air of indifference, much like the woman she found in there. Despite the tears, her features were hard, determined, a furrowed brow that held anger while her eyes told of sadness. She hadn't yet noticed Lux, and she took that opportunity to just stare, to take in her features. Jinx was tall, but short, lanky but with whipcord muscles, and childish but also telling of years of maturity. She was gorgeous, in every sense of the word. So brilliant, in fact, it took Lux less than a second to sit on the soft earth beside her.
The Willow hid her whispers from the outside world, and echoed them aloud inside for Jinx to hear.
"Are you alright?" The words spoke, soft and vibrant and unlike anything Jinx had heard before. She was too stunned to speak, too wondrous of the golden light that seeped through the Weeping Willow. Lux smiled kindly, holding a gentle hand on shaking shoulders. Jinx was cold to the touch, the kind of cold that shoots out from a frozen metal sheet. Lux didn't mind it, though, she never has. Jinx was cold and Lux was hot, so together… they made
warm
.
"It will be alright." Lux whispered, leaning her now warm head on a warm, no longer quivering shoulder. Jinx relaxed below her, and soon after laid her own warmth onto Lux's. And from then on, they were warm. It swirled together with them and kept them close, it bound them together by heart and mind like the warmth of a setting sun across a hilly landscape.
Lux remembered many a picnic they took, trekking out past the comforting gates of their town, out into a world of unknown beasts and hazards. But Lux never once felt unsafe, especially with Jinx there beside her. Nor did Jinx feel scrutinized under watchful gazes, as the only gaze Lux sent her were ones of complete adoration and love, not a single look of pity crossed her features, and none ever would. Every day and every night, Lux looked into her eyes with admiration and grace, and in turn Jinx looked through hers with love and compassion.
She first learned to dance with Jinx upon a dusty sloped hill, when the sunlight barely peeked above its covers. Jinx wasn't amazing, but she knew some things. They'd laugh and dance and twirl until the moon graced over their shoulders, and they'd walk back hand in hand, arms pointed to the sky of stars in wonder. The little dipper was Jinx's favorite, she was always quite bland, and Lux loved Andromeda, and the story of love it held. She wished one day to have a love like that—without all the sea creatures, of course—though it came true all the same.
Jinx was standing there, arms opened wide with a grinning smile and twinkling eyes, and Lux could do no more but jump in her arms. In the dark of night with only the stars above as their witness, they shared a first kiss. It was slow and sweet and it lifted Lux off her feet, and she wished only to feel it again.
There were many things Lux wished to do once more. She believes to have lived her life to the fullest, but even then it feels she took every occasion for granted. It's a trick of the mind, really, a deep part that convinces you that life is forever, when in reality it is but a few nanoseconds in the expansive lifetime of the Universe. The Weeping Willow understood that. It understood that its life was fleeting and that it should use its time wisely, it should bring together the ignorant peoples of the world under its soft vines and keep them company as they melded together. Lux was ever grateful to that old tree and all it had given her.
Lux left her family early on, moving to the small town and getting an unstable job as a host in one of the restaurants. She was poor when she met Jinx, and so was Jinx, but neither needed the luxuries that money gave.
One warm evening, Lux had spent all day preparing a meal for when Jinx returned, but their old, rickety table broke upon itself as soon as she placed it down. She was devastated, picking up the shattered pieces of her hard work with blurry eyes. But Jinx didn't care, she picked up the shards of glass, nicking her already calloused hands on the pieces as she dumped them in the trash. Jinx held Lux as she cried and apologized, but all Jinx did was whisper loving words. Everything would be alright, and that she loved her.
And what could have been a devastating memory was bathed in light. Jinx brought her to the kitchen and they began creating. They made everything from pasta to casseroles to beans on toast, the taste mattered not, only that they were together. All through the night they laughed and danced together, their warmth like a blazing inferno on a cold night. It was perfect, all of it, all of Jinx was absolutely perfect. Lux often wondered what she did to deserve such an amazing lover… and later why she deserved for it to be taken away.
The town always seemed red when they went out together. Whereas at night, or when Lux was alone, the town was painted in blue and gold. But, only when they tread upon mulch and stone together was it blood red.
Jinx made many excuses for it. That they should go back and no one should see Lux with her, but Lux always shut her up with a firm grasp and a warm peck on the lips. It always worked, too, Jinx forgot her worries and swung their inner joined hands, humming and grinning at every glaring passerby. Lux would laugh at the funny faces Jinx made, all the stink eyes and outstretched tongues that no doubt offended everyone in sight. Though, the kids seemed to love her.
As kids were innocent, they were new to the world and did not yet know of the stigmatization that adults carried. They'd play on Jinx's arms or force her to push them on a swing, or even chase her down in a fun game of tag. Lux loved to sit aside and watch as Jinx smiled happily, playing patty cake and giving piggyback rides to all the local kids at the playground.
And they'd play and play until nightfall, until their parents looked up from their inconsequential lives and remembered they had little bags of fun to take care of. Jinx would immediately take off, running and laughing as the kids followed as long as they could. Lux too followed her, kicking off her flip flops and feeling the warm grass between her toes.
With the setting sun Jinx would pick Lux up and twirl her around, both laughing until they fell into the green grass. Lux would rest her head on Jinx's beating heart, sighing in content at the constant pulsing that made her heart flutter. And they'd stay there until time too stopped. Howling winds blocked the noise of the outside world, like the Willow tree had once done. And here Jinx would tell her a secret, one she cherished still now.
“It was cold in that Willow Tree, until you came in.” Jinx whispered, mouth to ear, her blue hairs tickling Lux’s face. She’d smile wide, staring into the bright blue eyes that looked down at her. And Lux would laugh, she’d laugh and laugh until no air reached her lungs, until her face was covered in blue and her diaphragm shook with thundering hiccups. Jinx would begin to laugh too, holding her forehead to Lux’s as they giggled like two school girls telling a secret. “Then it was warm,” Jinx softly spoke, her smile growing more and more as they stared into each other's eyes. It was perfect and beautiful how their warmth swirled, and Lux hoped it would be perfect forever. Though nothing is forever, her mind whispered, and she hated it not because it lied, but because it told the truth. A truth she knew but begged to be wrong. A truth that meant everything would one day return to the dust it began as. And in a happy moment, Lux cried. She let tears fall and fall until they dampened Jinx's shirt, who in turn wiped them away with crying eyes. But Jinx’s face held no worry, because what plagued Lux plagued her too.
The neverending looming feeling of mortality that gripped every heart and mind, and that would grip theirs until the very end. Every soft kiss and small touch reminded them that this was their only time, and that when life demanded the energy it sacrificed for so long back, it would be over. Every happy smile and wondrous memory that fell Under the Weeping Willow.
Lux always felt it would be her first, no she hoped, begged, for her to be first. No one heard her cries, though. No one heard as she begged for mercy, begged for them to stop, they did not listen. To them she was brainwashed, manipulated, taken hostage by a curse who did nothing but destroy the land they walked upon. She still remembers the look in Jinx’s eyes, the calm knowing that made her heart wrench over and over, the quiet lips that mouthed
I’m sorry
and
I love you
and the tears that drenched cold rosy cheeks.
That’s it, Lux thought, feeling the heat in her bones and in her heart, but it was not comforting, it was not warm. It was pure inferno, blistering her skin and sizzling her mind and burning up every happy memory they’d shared together. That was the end of warmth, and the beginning of fire, and the too soon end of her happy-filled life.
The Willow still stood even years later. It never changed, really, the branches still hung low and the leaves still covered all its secrets, although now, it held much more than secrets. It held love, and dying hope, it held her world underneath its roots and kept it there for Lux to see everyday. She’d stop by and talk to the Weeping Willow, every day and every night, about all the new things in her life, and Lux knew, she
knew
that Jinx heard her.